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Cutting the fat
Efforts to remove trans fats under way, but simple steps can help at home
Heart Healthy Tips
The American Heart Association advises the public to follow these tips to minimize the intake of trans fats.
• Use vegetable oils such as canola, safflower, sunflower, or olive.
• Look for processed foods with unhydrogenated vegetable oils, rather than fully or partially hydrogenated oils.
• Use soft margarine as a substitute for butter, and choose soft margarine (liquid or tub) over stick forms.
• French fries, doughnuts, cookies, crackers, muffins, pies and cakes are foods that are high in trans fat. Don't eat them often.
More Food 
Whole wheat bread pops from the toaster. Do you reach for the butter dish or the tub of margarine? The American Heart Association would advise you to opt for the margarine.
So would Mary Messier, a registered dietician with Shasta County Public Health. "The softest margarines will be the healthiest," said Messier.
Messier and the American Heart Association, along with health professionals across the country, are on a crusade to remove trans fats from people's diets.
By 2010, restaurants will be prohibited from serving foods that have more than half a gram of trans fat per serving; the same holds true for baked goods, but the deadline is 2011. Many fast food restaurants have already taken steps to remove trans fats from their menu items.
What is it about trans fat that is so threatening?
"It's the double whammy," said Messier. "Trans fat raises the bad cholesterol while it lowers the good cholesterol."
High levels of cholesterol are associated with heart disease.
Trans fats are created when saturated fats (meat, dairy) are hydrogenized. The hydrogenated fats increase the shelf life for packaged foods and are found in commercial baked goods and cookies, french fries, doughnuts and other products.
Messier said it's important to check package labels to determine the amount of trans fat in a product. According to the American Heart Association, an individual should consume no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
But reading the label to check for fat grams is only part of the exercise. By law, a product can be labeled free of trans fat if it contains less than half a gram per serving. "For example, two cookies might be trans free, but six won't be," Messier said.
While labels list the amount of fat per serving, not all break down what types of fats are included in the product. Messier said the key word to look for is "hydrogenated."
"If a product includes partially- or fully-hydrogenated oil as an ingredient, it contains trans fats," she said.
Messier said that trans fats can be found in some unexpected products such as bread and crackers. "Always read the labels," she said.
Labels that read monounsaturated or polyunsaturated oil, or list specific oils such as olive, safflower, corn or vegetable, are recommended. "Those are also the oils that people should cook with at home," Messier said.
When it comes to baking, Messier recommends substituting healthier ingredients whenever possible. In lieu of oil, applesauce can be used to make breads or muffins. "It will make the baked goods lighter," she said.
Messier has also used prune butter when making chocolate cake and said it still results in a rich dessert.
However, Messier cautions that one shouldn't avoid all fats.
"It's important to have certain types of fats in your diet, because your body does need them," she said, and recommends incorporating avocados, olive oil, nuts and salmon into a regular diet.
Messier is a firm believer in eating a well balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meats and low-fat dairy.
She acknowledges that changing eating habits isn't easy. "It takes time to change," she said. "Maybe just start using whole wheat flour or changing the type of oil that you use." And reaching for the margarine tub instead of the butter cube.
Debra Moore is a freelance writer who lives in Redding. She can be reached at mooredebra13@yahoo.com.
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